Target Mobilizes Back-to-School Print Campaign With Image Recognition

Ties traditional with digital to target college students

Target wants to prove that traditional media like print and TV can drive e-commerce sales, highlighted in its new back-to-school marketing push. Target is launching a mobile app that works with the retailer’s fall print catalog to trigger sales for its Room Essentials collection, aimed at college students. Target’s In a Snap mobile app also works with print ads in magazines including Conde Nast-owned Domino and Architectural Digest and Time Inc.’s Real Simple.

Shoppers with the app downloaded first hover a mobile device above an ad or a page in the catalog. Once the app recognizes a product, users can shop the item by viewing it on Target’s e-commerce site and check out without leaving the app.

Instead of incorporating the image recognition feature into Target’s branded app, In a Snap was built as a stand-alone project to quickly launch the back-to-school effort.

The big box retailer is also opening a 20,000-square foot store (roughly 15 percent of the size of a typical location) store called Target Express in Minneapolis this week that will promote the app in-store.

In a Snap is the latest mobile pilot program that Target has run in the past year as part of its efforts to drive mobile sales from traditional media.